Highways in the Whites

[Kevin Rooney]

Skookumchuck has an even longer parallel section, not to mention Liberty Spring/Cascade Brook where you have to walk to the former trailhead. And then there's the middle trail to Mount Pemigewasset which was cut off by the highway and never reconnected.

I don't mind the re-route of the Skookumchuck and Liberty Springs trails as they travel over relatively smooth ground. Greenleaf's re-route is over a jumble of rocks. Not much choice of terrrain, however. You get what you get in these situations.

 

[David Metsky]

All in all, the new road was not convenient for trails in the Notch, one of the first indications that the AMC was becoming hiker-unfriendly when they encouraged this to happen.

I don't think that's a fair assessment of the AMC in this case or long term. The highway was going through - there was going to be an impact to the hiking trails and these changes weren't all that drastic. More people hike with the AMC now then ever have.

 

[Waumbek]

I don't think that's a fair assessment of the AMC in this case or long term. The highway was going through - there was going to be an impact to the hiking trails and these changes weren't all that drastic. More people hike with the AMC now then ever have.

Agree. The configuration of the I-93 Parkway was a complicated but, I think, ultimately successful compromise. There's no simple delineation between "good guys" and "bad guys." Among other things, the deal left 116 in the Easton Valley the relatively quiet two-lane road that has become a cyclist's paradise in a valley largely unspoiled by starter castles and McMansions (although there are a handful of those). Other than a few lodgings, there's an 11-mile stretch with no commercial establishments. And when hiking becomes about shorter and "convenient" trails that aren't too rocky or whatever, it's time to head west to the pack trails.

 

[RoySwkr]

I don't think that's a fair assessment of the AMC in this case or long term. The highway was going through - there was going to be an impact to the hiking trails and these changes weren't all that drastic. More people hike with the AMC now then ever have.

Obviously thousands of hikers think the AMC is beneficial and belong and other thousands think it isn't and don't, I will limit my response to particular issues in the Whites on which the AMC is/was hiker-unfriendly mostly for no apparent reason.

In the case of the Notch highway, surely spending an additional pittance for a wider bridge at Lafayette Place so cars wouldn't have to make 2 additional trips through the most sensitive part of the Notch would have been good for both hikers and the environment. Building a parking lot at the A.T. crossing (perhaps even with pay phone) so thru-hikers would have a place to be picked up would have been a great boon to hikers with little greater environmental impact than putting it by the Flume, but the A.T. has always been of minor concern to the AMC except as a source of trailwork grants.

As to other hiker issues the AMC has ignored, instead of insisting of a 1-for-1 replacement of removed shelters with new ones in less sensitive locations the AMC has been glad to get rid of this free competition to the huts. The AMC has not objected to the summit sign removal in the WMNF in spite of good evidence that hikers prefer them - what percentage of group shots on Katahdin show the sign? And when the WMNF decides to enforce their guideline of no groups over 4 to Isolation and Owls Head, both AMC trip leaders and families of 5 will choke.

 

[smitty77]

My earliest recollections of the construction was back in 1982 when it began. At the start of my first overnight backpack up Liberty, it was a small ordeal just finding the beginning of the trail. I don't know if it was the original liberty parking area, or if it was temporarily relocated due to construction, but the parking area was very close to the northbound Parkway bridge across Cascade Brook (the bridge was only abutments and girders at the time) and the trail crossed Cascade Brook right out of the parking area, but there were no rocks to hop on or any bridge across, and the water was more than a foot deep at the time. We had to walk to the newer southbound side of the Parkway, cross Cascade Brook via the road bridge, and whack back to the trail, trying to decide whether to turn right or left at the bike path as signage was non-existent during the early stages of construction. We eventually made, it, but what a start to a trip.

 

[andrewb]

The effort to have the guardrail barrier installed was spearheaded by a Littleton area attorney who strongly felt the Parkway, as originally built with no center barrier, was a major hazard, especially in winter when the Notch becomes a treacherous place due to the frequent ice and snow storms.

Perhaps I am missing something here, but isn't the part of the parkway with the guardrail in the middle basically no different from any other 2-lane road with a speed limit of 45 ... except for the ugly guard rail down the middle? I know it's too late now, but I would be against the guard if it was proposed now because if you install one there, why not along all the other tens of thousands of miles of roads all across america that might be icy? Why not rt 16 thru Pinkham and all of 112 for starters?

We always seem to do such a great job of removing the outdoors from being outside, but within the boundary of our state parks and forests, there should not be a super highway. Lower the speed limit to 30 instead of putting in guard rails if it's truly a dangerous place. Thats my $0.02

 

[Hillwalker]

Prevention

One of the reasons the guardrail separator is there is to prevent u-turns and other direction changes by drivers traversing the notch. It also probably inhibits stopping to gawk other than at designated pull offs. When the thousands of old flexible white posts were there they showed evidence of lots of swiping by cars whose drivers were looking up rather than at the roadway. That tendency to gawk and wander over the road probably contributed to the head on collisions that took place before the ugly guard rails were installed. Possibly nicely painted "Jersey barriers might be more aesthetic than the rails.

 

[RoySwkr]

isn't the part of the parkway with the guardrail in the middle basically no different from any other 2-lane road with a speed limit of 45 ... except for the ugly guard rail down the middle? ... Why not rt 16 thru Pinkham and all of 112 for starters?

Another part of the issue is that with divided highways at both ends, people tend to forget they're on a 2-lane and pass without looking, etc. This has been a severe problem on various roads in the state many of which have since been 4-laned. There is a center rumble strip on Rte.9/202 by Henniker for instance.

 

[Stan]

... isn't the part of the parkway with the guardrail in the middle basically no different from any other 2-lane road with a speed limit of 45 ...

It is quite different and unique for both its beauty, which can be quite distracting, and the microclimate that, combined with a high traffic count and preceded in both directions by an interstate high speed highway, present a hazard that is above normal. That barrier has likely saved many lives or much injury from head on collisions.

Regulating speed wouldn't matter ... you can't create common sense where it doesn't exist. On our month long road trip through the southwest we saw but one accident, at an intersection in Chatanooga, until the last day and 250miles in comparatively light snow. That day we saw 12 accidents including 2 jackknifed 18 wheelers, 2 overturned 18 wheelers, and 8 nincompoops stuck in the ditch or median, all too stupid to drive for the conditions.

With respect to mountain roads, if you want to see what a ridge drive would look like, travel on the Blue Ridge or Shenendoah Parkways. They are certainly beautiful but I'd rather see Franconia Ridge on foot as I expect everyone else on this site would.